15 Steps to Productivity at CBC 2015: A Not-So-Serious Guide

1. First stop: registration. Make sure you don’t lose your lanyard, or else it’s no beer for you! Plus no access to seminars and equipment booths - that’s important too.2. The huge number of booths can be intimidating, but the best strategy is to just dive right in. Pick a lane and go for it! You should probably skirt the beer stations for now - you’re here for business, remember?3. Make sure you stop at every single booth and pick up all of the freebies. Your bag’s pretty full already, but hey - who can turn down free chocolate?4. One lane down, 150 to go! Time to reward yourself with a cold one. Or two, or three.

5. Hey, is that Paul from the brewpub down the street? Connections are a vital part of building a business. Make sure you go over there and discuss the latest crazy alcohol laws from city hall. Don’t get too sucked in though, Paul can get pretty chatty…

6. An hour and a half and several beer stations later, it’s time to get rid of Paul. A seminar on hops is a good excuse! When Paul bids you good bye and meanders away, double back to hit some of the other booths you missed.7. Man, you must have drank more beers with Paul than you thought! It’s getting hard to remember everything you’ve looked at. Make sure you take a few blurry photos of your favorite booths so you remember who you like. Get your thumb in there a couple times too for good measure.8. Time for some free food. Let’s check out the hospitality suites - those are supposed to be fun! Maybe you’ll even win some stuff. At the very least, you can grab a couple more beers.9. Meeting new vendors is crucial, but you also want to cultivate the relationships you already have. Suppliers love putting a face to a name. Head back to the exhibition hall and try to find some familiar faces.10. After a good hour of looking for your suppliers you are pretty lost. Too bad you didn’t download the CBC app (iPhone)(Android) to tell you where all the booths are, and even worse you drained your battery taking all those photos. Maybe a bathroom break will refresh your brain.11. Since you’re here, may as well refuel on some coffee too. Grab a seat and rest your feet while you’re at it.

12. Check your watch. Is it 5pm already? Better run back to the exhibition hall! You’re supposed to be looking for a new bottle-filler.13. You’ve got your second wind and things are going great. Wait a second, where’s your giant bag of pamphlets and free stuff? It got so heavy that you must have left it somewhere. No one had better eat that Twix bar that you were saving…

14. Backtrack like your life depends on it! You need those oodles of jargony bottle filler pamphlets, or else you’ll be the one stuck hand-filling forever. Who needs that when there is so much beer to be drunk?15. What’s that out of the corner of your eye? It’s a blue booth with the the tagline “Buy Smarter”, and some nice fellows in blue polos are beckoning you over. Looks like they can get you quotes and specs from all the suppliers you were interested in, and it will all go straight into your online account! You breathe a sigh of relief. Now that Kinnek has taken care of everything for you, it’s time to party!